Valency Systems Inc. - Senior Software Engineer - Backend Systems
Requirements
• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with deep expertise in backend systems — APIs, databases, distributed architectures, and cloud infrastructure • Strong command of at least one backend language (Python, Go, Java, Rust, or similar) and comfort working across major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) • Hands-on experience with relational databases (schema design, query optimization, indexing) and familiarity with non-relational or caching layers • Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines • Demonstrated ability to own and deliver complex, ambiguous projects end-to-end with minimal supervision • Track record of mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction without formal authority • Clear, direct communication — you can explain a hard trade-off to an engineer and a product manager alike • Experience working in a startup environment — you've built and scaled systems while the business was growing rapidly underneath them, worn multiple hats, and thrived in ambiguity • Experience with our stack or adjacent: Node.js/TypeScript, AWS Lambda/CDK/Step Functions, PostgreSQL, Cloudflare • Familiarity with auth systems (e.g. OAuth) and observability tooling • Experience with workflow orchestration tools (Temporal, Airflow, Prefect) and async job processing at scale • Working knowledge of infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi) and cloud cost management • What Makes Someone Exceptional Here • This role rewards engineers who think in systems — who aren't satisfied shipping a feature that works today if it'll break at 10x scale. You're someone who: • Has deep backend instincts: clean data models, well-designed APIs, observable services, and resilient failure modes • Leaves code, documentation, and systems measurably better than you found them • Brings a product mindset: you understand why you're building something, not just how • Earns trust through execution, not hierarchy — your opinion carries weight because of what you've shipped • Thrives in the ambiguity of a fast-moving company and knows when to move fast vs. when to slow down and get it right • Could step into a management role if needed, but genuinely prefers to stay in the code and go deeper
Responsibilities
• Backend Engineering • Backend Engineering • Design, build, and own critical backend services — APIs, data pipelines, async workers, and the infrastructure that keeps them running reliably at scale • Make sound architectural decisions and document trade-offs clearly so the whole team can learn from them • Drive platform and reliability investments alongside feature work — the foundational improvements that keep pace with growth • Establish and uphold high standards for code quality, test coverage, and operational excellence • Diagnose and resolve complex performance, reliability, and scalability issues; conduct thorough post-mortems that prevent recurrence • Distributed Systems & Infrastructure • Design and maintain distributed systems that are resilient to failure — applying patterns like circuit breakers, retries, idempotency, and rate limiting where they count • Own the full lifecycle of services from design through deployment, including CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and cloud infrastructure • Implement and iterate on observability practices: structured logging, metrics dashboards, distributed tracing, and alerting • Contribute to infrastructure-as-code practices (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar) and cloud cost optimization • Data & Integrations • Data & Integrations • Design performant, well-normalized data models across relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and non-relational (Redis, MongoDB, DynamoDB) stores • Build and maintain data pipelines, ETL/ELT workflows, and integrations with third-party services and external APIs • Apply caching strategies thoughtfully — CDN, in-memory, and application-level — and understand the failure modes of each • Work with message queues and event streaming platforms (Kafka, SQS, RabbitMQ) to build decoupled, async architectures • Security & Compliance • Apply secure coding practices by default: input validation, secrets management, least-privilege access, and protection against common vulnerabilities • Contribute to compliance efforts (SOC 2, GDPR, or similar) with an understanding of how engineering decisions affect data privacy and auditability • Technical Leadership • Be the go-to engineer for hard problems — unblock teammates, provide crisp technical direction, and raise the quality of design reviews • Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through code review, pairing, and direct, constructive feedback • Write architecture decision records (ADRs) and technical documentation that outlast the original project • Partner with Product and Design to scope work realistically, surface constraints early, and deliver with clarity • Represent engineering in cross-functional conversations and earn influence through execution, not hierarchy
Benefits
• Meaningful backend challenges on a product that's growing fast and reaching real users • A small, high-trust team where your decisions have outsized impact • A culture that values engineering excellence and invests seriously in the people who drive it • Compensation, Benefits & EquityWe offer a competitive salary, benefits, and meaningful equity in a company building something important from the ground up. • Work Authorization Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. • Work Authorization
Apply in one click
Upload My Resume
Drop here or click to browse · Tap to choose · PDF, DOCX, DOC, RTF, TXT